Caregiving with love BY GUY MAGAR, HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR
Whether it’s your wife, husband, child, another relative or close friend you are caring for, it is paramount that you become the best caregiver possible for your loved one. As a caregiver for my wife, Jacqui, during her brave journey to beat aml-leukemia, here is what I learned and can share as I honor and applaud caregivers everywhere.
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Amp it up! magazine MARCH 2013
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Be the trusted advocate. No matter the illness, the medical journey to heal is lengthy and complicated, especially if the battleground is cancer. It is important to make sure that you - the caregiver - understand the treatment that the doctor has initiated, no matter how complex, and that all questions have been answered, including the many what ifs and whens. If you need to research various options or get second opinions, make it happen. If you need a clinical trial, find it. If the patient is overwhelmed or can’t focus, he or she must feel and know the caregiver is the responsible advocate and is knowledgeable of the best possible medical journey. If so, the patient will feel protected and loved, and thus empowered to just focus on his or her part: the healing.
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Become the cocoon around your loved one. Every day, I’d get into Jacqui’s bed and we’d hug tightly as she’d wrap herself around me while we chatted or napped. I always made sure she felt totally surrounded, completely cocooned, by my love, my strength, and my positive attitude. As a caregiver, you have to supply that grounding, that safety net. No matter how bad or creepy or doubtful a patient may feel, you have to provide an unconditional, unbending, concrete tower of absolute certainty about positive progress, as well as an ocean of love that will not allow anything to happen but the very, very best. As caregiver, you must be the unmovable rock of strength and security. A granite-strong cocoon!